Month: March 2013

Here at CCWRC, we are happy to see that we have two amazing teams representing CCWRC in Play-Ins. WSU and UW are both in the top 32 DII teams in the nation. Exciting!

We are proud of all our teams this year and are excited for the amount of growth we are seeing in Pacific Northwest Women’s rugby!

Go Cougs!

Woof!

As the number one seed in CCWRC; WSU will be hosting Colorado Mesa University on April 6th. As the second seed UW will be packing up vans, pillows, and water to make the 15 hour drive to UC Santa Cruz on April 6th as well. The winner of these Play In games will then head to Regionals on the Stanford campus in Palo Alto California.

Here is hoping that all our Cougs and Dawgs get a chance to work on their California Tan!

“Any change, even one for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.” When I read these words by Arnold Bennet, I thought to myself, “He must have been a rugger.”

Over the last few months your CCWRC President and the coaches from UW and WSU have been learning all about drawbacks and discomforts of the awesome change that has been happening within USA Rugby.

In January, USA Rugby informed WSU and UW that they would be moving up to DI in order to align with USA Rugby’s mission of Collegiate Athletic alignment. As always, they could petition to stay in DII. Both teams petitioned and both teams were denied. This denial made both teams ineligible for the DII postseason. USA Rugby gave both teams the opportunity to appeal. Ruggers are always up for another scrum down so appeal they did.

The appeals were both based on the fact that USA rugby had communicated with CCWRC that divisional alignment wasn’t required until 2015.After submitting appeals, evidence and attending a phone hearing USA Rugby did what ruggers do, they supported their rugby family. Both appeals were upheld and WSU and UW were allowed to finish out their seasons at the DII level.

The real story here isn’t the petitions or appeal but the amazing work on USA Rugby’s part to not become a faceless bureaucratic system where no voice can be heard. USA Rugby was incredibly honest and helpful during the entire process. Scrum caps off to you USA Rugby!

At CCWRC we were also excited by the amount of support from competitors that UW and WSU received. The teams that would have benefited from an ineligible decision, stood up said these teams deserve their spot in the post season.This is the magic of rugby.

I can assure you that USA Rugby is changing for the better. Through this growth they have not forgotten they are rooted in the hopes and dreams of every rugby player out there. Here at CCWRC we are excited for the future and our ready to put in the work to make it happen.

Thank you to WSU and UW for being amazing teams. We are proud of your fight!